scholarly journals Crisis-driven reforms and local discretion: an assessment of Italy and Spain

2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Bolgherini
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
Institutional Framework ◽  
Local Discretion ◽  
Local Levels ◽  
Economic And Financial Crisis

The recent and still enduring global economic and financial crisis deeply impacted the institutional framework in Italy and Spain by prompting a series of reforms, which ultimately re-shaped the local government features. Based on a qualitative comparative analysis of recent reforms, the author shows that (directly and indirectly) crisis-driven provisions have significantly impacted the local levels and changed the central/local relations in both countries. During the years of crisis, a decrease in local discretion in its three main facets (fiscal, administrative, and political/functional) has taken place. This outcome could both allow for a better understanding of how central and local governments have interacted during the crisis and to contribute to the formulation of more general considerations on local discretion and central/local relations in Italy and Spain.

Getting Along or Going Alone: Understanding Collaboration Between Local Governments and NGOs in Bolivia

2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jami Nelson-Nuñez ◽  
Kate Cartwright
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Public Goods ◽  
Information Sharing ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Community Group ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Group Engagement ◽  
Local Levels ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractWhat explains mayors’ collaboration with nongovernmental organizations in delivering public goods and services? While some successful collaborations are established, in other cases the call for NGOs to coordinate with governments goes unheeded. Collaboration minimizes the duplication of effort, maximizes information sharing, and builds capacity. Given the scholarly consensus on the importance of collaboration, we know little about it at local levels, where it may matter most. This article focuses on Bolivia, a country with deep decentralization reforms and an active NGO sector. It utilizes survey data on mayors from 2007 to provide insight into the variation in NGO–local government collaboration across a country. It argues that political context is important: mayoral turnover, greater community group engagement, and more municipal resources deter collaboration. The findings illustrate the strategic interplay between state and nonstate actors and explain the uneven geographies of partnerships in governance.

Determining Factors of Transparency and Accountability in Local Governments: A Meta-Analytic Study

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Alcaide-Muñoz ◽  
Manuel Pedro Rodríguez Bolívar
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Information Disclosure ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Financial Information ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Information Transparency ◽  
Considerable Heterogeneity ◽  
Determining Factors ◽  
Economic And Financial Crisis

The importance granted to information transparency in improving the accountability of public administrations has become increasingly greater in recent years under a scenario of economic and financial crisis as a tool of control. Although academic studies are aimed at identifying the key factors underlying a higher level of economic-financial information disclosure by local governments, there exists considerable heterogeneity in the results obtained. In this sense, we have carried out a meta-analysis to validate previous empirical results, and highlight causes of the variations and contradictions identified. Our study shows the variables analysed to be positively associated with the disclosure of public financial information, but also that this depends on the context in which the research is carried out.

scholarly journals Insolvent Local Government: German Approaches to Prevention

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Duve ◽  
Wolfgang Drechsler
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Empirical Basis ◽  
Financial Pressure ◽  
Budget Crisis ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Municipal Autonomy ◽  
Do So

The global financial crisis is affecting local governments particularly strongly. The threat of insolvency looms large for many local governments, and therefore, it is unfortunately very timely to examine this issue. Can genuine bankruptcy occur, should it be allowed to occur, can it be prevented, and if it cannot be, how can it be managed well? In order to do so, the current essay sets out to investigate, on an empirical basis, how Germany has so far (i.e., before the crash) dealt with the issue of municipal insolvency. This pre-crisis approach also underlines the importance of the topic, because it shows that even in more or less financially solid times, municipalities were already exposed to high financial pressure. Now, the crisis has increased the number of municipalities facing a budget crisis. The results of the present investigation can assist in dealing with the consequences of the crisis. On account of its high and indeed paradigm-setting level of municipal autonomy, the possibility of drawing lessons from Germany should be particularly interesting.

scholarly journals Identifying Resilient and Non-Resilient Labour Conditions in Europe Using Qualitative Comparative Analysis

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 129
Author(s):  
Sandra Martínez Molina ◽  
Paula Sabater Pavía ◽  
Jorge Garcés Ferrer
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Initial Conditions ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
Temporary Employment ◽  
Success Rates ◽  
Level Of Education ◽  
Labour Market Flexibility ◽  
Different Levels

Based on the concept of labour market resilience, this paper is aimed to determine the combination of initial conditions behind resilient and non-resilient labour markets after the financial crisis in 2008 in Europe. We start from the assumption that some initial conditions in 2007 are crucial to achieve a specific labour result when a shock appears. In this sense, the effect of temporary employment in cyclical sectors, labour market flexibility, the level of education among the workforce, and the expenditure on Labour Market Policies (LMP) have been tested using crisp-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (csQCA) in 25 European countries. Whilst our results do not explain labour market resilience in its entirety, we have found a model explaining 85% of the non-resilient cases. These findings suggest that the different levels of initial conditions may have prompted dissimilar labour adjustments with varying success rates in dealing with the job losses.

scholarly journals Evaluation of Drought Resilience Reflecting Regional Characteristics: Focused on 160 Local Governments in Korea

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 1873
Author(s):  
Chan-Wook Lee ◽  
Do-Guen Yoo
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Drought Assessment ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Drought Resilience ◽  
Regional Drought ◽  
Hazard Process ◽  
Actual Region ◽  
Analyze Data

It is critical to prepare appropriate responses and countermeasures against droughts caused by a complex hazard process as the range of its damage and duration are very large. In this study, 160 local governments in Korea evaluated drought resilience. A total of 18 qualitative and quantitative drought recovery indicators were selected to collect and analyze data from each region. Comparative analysis of indicators through regional drought assessment was conducted to derive results and present directions for enhancing resilience. Lastly, a resilience curve of drought that can utilize the results of the evaluation was suggested and applied to the actual region, and the results were analyzed. The proposed method can be expected to be used as a basic and essential resources to prepare various local government measures against drought.

scholarly journals Nonmarketization Bargaining and Actual Compensation Level for Land Requisition: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of China’s Land Requisition Conflict Events

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (21) ◽  
pp. 6084 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Huang ◽  
Shougeng Hu ◽  
Shixiang Li ◽  
Zhenqi Fu
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
The Other ◽  
Land Requisition ◽  
The Empirical Analysis ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
External Intervention ◽  
Compensation Level

In the land requisition market in China, two very different compensation levels for land requisition can be seen in the real world: one is the highly rigid official compensation level for land requisition and the other is a fuzzy actual compensation level for land requisition. In order to uncover the determinants of the actual compensation level for land requisition in China, this paper adopts Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to analyze the causal relationship between nonmarketization bargaining factors, like land-losing farmers’ bargaining ability, bargaining strategy, external intervention, etc., and the actual compensation level for land requisition by taking 70 land requisition conflict events occurring from 2002 to 2017 as the point of departure. The results of the empirical analysis show that if land-losing farmers have a relatively strong bargaining ability, forgo a radical bargaining strategy, and use a relatively gentle bargaining strategy instead, they can effectively force local governments to make concessions and compromises on the compensation level for land requisition. This paper not only enriches the existing research on the structure of social power, but it also has significance for the ongoing reform of the land requisition system.

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